Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante

Parmigiani Fleurier took its profitable GMT Rattrapante concept and utilized it to the minute hand within the aptly named Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante. The presence of three pushers right here ought to warn you to hidden complexities in what the Parmigiani Fleurier manufacture is attempting to perform. To start with, there are two minute palms right here (one in rhodiumised white gold, the opposite in rose gold), and one behaves fairly, monitoring the minutes because it ought to. The opposite, the rose gold hand, does one thing by no means seen in watchmaking so far as we are able to inform — it tracks forward of the usual minute hand by increments of 1 or 5 minutes. This successfully permits it to behave as a countdown timer, ready for the usual minute hand to catch up. The pusher at 8 o’clock advances this hand by 5 minutes whereas the pusher at 10 o’clock advances it by one minute. 

The above description reveals how the watch would possibly simply be used to mark elapsed minutes, however what’s the pusher on the crown for then? It returns the rose gold hand again below the usual minute hand, the place it strikes in lockstep till referred to as forth once more. Now, that is the form of complication that should both go away you scratching your head or grinning broadly, as a result of it is a form of chronograph but is nothing of the kind. Because the manufacture cheekily notes, this sort of operate is often completed with a rotating bezel, however has now been actually difficult by being carried out by the motion, the automated calibre PF052 with micro-rotor. Personally, I take advantage of the bezel-operated operate on my dive look ahead to this objective, whereas I journey, to cowl sure key timing occasions (how a lot time left earlier than I would like to go to the departure gate on the airport, for instance). If I had the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, I might be utilizing the pushers on the watch for a similar impact. 

You would possibly pretty ask if this form of factor actually requires a brand new motion, and strictly talking, it does due to all of the elevated motion within the movement works, and the need for the pushers to work together with the identical. That being mentioned, having three pushers right here challenges the aesthetics of the Tonda PF case, pushing class to the restrict. The manufacture says the pusher system is in place to make the watch simple to make use of, and it definitely does that. A operate selector, by way of the crown for instance, would make the watch somewhat fussier whilst it might doubtlessly make the case cleaner and the watch extra mysterious. The Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante from final yr additionally in all probability made the choice to make use of pushers simpler, since that watch looms giant within the minds of many collectors. 

In quite a lot of methods, this new Minute Rattrapante echoes its GMT predecessor, all the way down to its 40mm diameter and 10.7mm thickness. The manufacture calibre, P052, looks like an evolution of the P051, which powered the GMT Rattrapante; inspecting it by way of the exhibition caseback, it appears precisely the identical. That is unsurprising, given that every one the motion occurs within the movement works, which you’d solely see if the dial was openworked, or in sapphire crystal. The watch is in metal, with knurled platinum bezel, and relaxation pusher in rose gold. At Watches and Wonders Geneva, the worth was listed at CHF28,000.

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